Newsmakers

Adam and Eve: Banished Again

It was difficult to keep order in the court, what with the exhibits sticking their tongues out at the judge. But Cook County Associate Judge Ann Houser had not expected this to be an ordinary case. Houser found Thomas Fabing guilty of keeping life-threatening reptiles--two Burmese pythons and an 8-foot boa constrictor named Crusher--in his home, a misdemeanor. Defense attorney Michael Fabing, Thomas' brother, brought the snakes into the Chicago courtroom as evidence. "I was reluctant to have (the snakes) brought in," Houser said. "But I wanted to take every opportunity to examine the evidence." Two handlers managed the reptiles in court. "They were flicking their tongues at all times," Houser said. "The female was probably more active than the other two. She was trying to get away," she said of Eve, an 18-foot python. The state Department of Agriculture confiscated Eve, Crusher and Adam--the other python--from Fabing's home in October. Fabing, the attorney, said the case is a lot of hoopla for nothing. "Pythons are not particularly dangerous snakes, but people take a look at a snake that big and are afraid. The fact is, humans are not on their diet," he said. "If the state is going to adopt a policy of grabbing every snake over 6 feet long, they are going to wind up with 40,000 of them." Sentencing was set for March 9.

--Tabatha Foster, the 3-year-old Madisonville, Ky., girl who underwent a multiple organ transplant, is getting some help from her celebrity friends. Frank Sinatra sent a $1,000 check to help pay her bills at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pa., pushing her fund to $160,000 and joining President Reagan and talk-show host Geraldo Rivera on the list of donors. "We've had contact from Stevie Wonder's people, too," said Joseph K. Williams III, the trustee for Tabatha's fund. Tabatha remains in serious condition three months after receiving a liver, pancreas, small intestine and parts of a stomach and colon. Her medical bills so far total about $350,000.

--Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme wants the West Virginia Soil Conservation Service or a 4-H club to benefit from her prosecution on charges she escaped from the Federal Correctional Institution at Alderson, W.Va., on Dec. 23 for two days. Fromme has said that she wants to represent herself at her trial and, in a letter to U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Hallanan, asked that money to pay a defense attorney go instead to either of the two groups. Fromme is serving a life sentence for trying to shoot President Gerald M. Ford in 1975.